Valley of the Dinosaurs
"The Great Stone Robbery"Valley of the Dinosaurs #9 (Charlton)
Art and Story: Fred Himes
August 1976

Another tribe in the valley accuses Greg of
stealing a sacred stone from their temple.

Story Summary

Taking a stroll one morning with Digger and
Glump, Greg is captured by members of the bird tribe, who accuse
him of stealing
a sacred stone from their temple. When Digger and Glump leap to
his rescue, they are netted as well. Greg is taken to the leader
of the tribe, Sha-Mir, who sentences the boy to be held inside a
steaming lava cave until the stone is returned. Little does
anyone else know that Sha-Mir himself has taken possession of
the stone and hopes to start a war with the cave dwellers,
believing his people will defeat them with the power of the
stone and he will rule the entire valley.

A messenger is sent to the cave dwellers to
relay the word of Greg's capture and demand the return of the
stone. But Gorok and John convince the messenger that Greg is
innocent and the messenger confesses that his people fear
Sha-Mir and his powers. Gorok tells him that John Butler has
even greater magic and they will free Greg and help the bird
tribe become free of Sha-Mir.

John and Lok attempt to free Greg, but are
thwarted by the pterosaurs that dwell within the cave. It comes
down to a misdirection by Kim and Katie against Sha-Mir, leading
the evil leader to plunge from a cliff into a lake, believing he
can fly with the power of his ill-gotten stone. With Sha-Mir
gone, the bird tribe is free.

THE END

Notes from the Valley of the
Dinosaurs Chronology

This story must take place some time after
"Rainfire"
since it mentions the hang gliders built by the Butlers in that
story.

Didja Know?

"The Great Stone Robbery" is an 11-page
story appearing in Valley of the Dinosaurs #9.

The title of this story was probably inspired by the bestselling
1975 novel The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton,
though there are a few other real world stories and incidents
that have been referred to by that name. The Crichton novel is
a fictionalized telling of an actual gold heist aboard a train in
England in 1855.

Didja Notice?

This story introduces the existence of the Bird tribe in the
Valley, which seems to worship both birds and a sacred, painted
stone. They live in a village of huts against the side of a
cliff and have a barrier of wooden posts built around it for
protection.

The members of the bird tribe wear the tops of what appear to be
very large bird skins, complete with beak and feathers. These
may the skins of "terror birds", what Gorok refers to as
"tandor" in "The
Volcano".

The bipedal dinosaur seen on page 5, panel 6, may be intended as
an Iguanodon, believed to be able to switch between
bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion.

Sha-Mir tells Kim and Katie that he has heard that the Butler
family has mastered the power of flight and Katie remarks to her
mom, "He must have heard of our hang gliders." She must be
referencing the hang gliders they built in
"Rainfire". But they've also built a glider craft in
"Test Flight" and
hot air balloons in "What Goes Up"
and "Secret of Nepa-Talu".

Some unidentified species of pterosaur is seen to inhabit the
lava cave on pages 8-9.

Unanswered Questions

Why would Sha-Mir necessarily believe Katie's story that all he
needs is the sacred stone to accomplish flight? He must know that
the Butlers never had the stone when they achieved it. I suppose
there could have been an unseen moment when Katie claimed they had
their own sacred stone when they did it.

What happened to Sha-Mir? Did he survive the plunge off the cliff
into the water? Considering his age, it seems a bit unlikely.

How did Digger know to retrieve the sacred stone from the drink? He
may be a smart dog, but he wasn't even around when the stone was
lost in the water.

And speaking of Digger finding the stone, it appears he was still
trapped in the bird tribe's net with Glump while he did it! Did the
bird tribe toss the two ensnared pets into the lake upon capture? If
so, how did they survive in it for so long, still ensnared??